Eterna Watches has been perfecting the watchmaker’s art for more that 150 years in the small town of Grenchen, located at the base of the Swiss Jura Mountains. Eterna is one of few watch manufacturers that manufactures entire movements at their own manufacturing facility.

Urs Schild Founds Eterna

Manufacturing superlative mechanical movements was the primary objective of Urs Schild when he founded Eterna on the 7th of November in 1856 to manufacture his own designs, along with blank movements for other Swiss watch brands.

Initially known as Schild Fréres, the company began producing lady’s wristwatches from adapted small pocket watches. In 1905, the company changed its name to Eterna and quickly established itself as a leader in the watchmaking industry.

A Succession of Milestones

As early as 1915, Eterna astonished the watchmaking world with table clocks that featured a movement with an incredible eight-day power reserve. As the company grew and prospered, many more innovations would follow. With family member Theodor Schild at the helm, Eterna was able to achieve a succession of milestones in the watch industry, including the world’s first wristwatch with an alarm function in 1914 and the world’s smallest baguette watch in 1930.

When Dr. Rudolf Schild-Comtesse took over company operations in 1932, he made the Eterna brand world famous with several innovations that are still in production today.

Introduction of the Eterna-matic

In 1948, Eterna introduced their famous Eterna-matic movement. This revolutionary self-winding movement, running on five small low-friction ball bearings, was extremely efficient and changed the way self-winding watches were designed forever.

The Eterna-matic was such an iconic design, that the five ball bearings became the official logo for the company and remains the company’s symbol to this day. The original Eterna-matic design remained in continuous production until 1998 but has recently been relaunched.

The company still produces its own movements today, including the groundbreaking Calibre 2505 and 3510 designs. These spectacular movements feature the Eterna Spherodrive, a fully overhauled energy source mounted on state-of-the-art ceramic ball bearings.

Eterna Today

In recent years, Eterna has been sold several times, but the company has never lost its focus or independent spirit. After becoming a part of the Porsche Design Group in the 1990’s, Eterna has produced some of the most famous Porsche Design watches of all time, including the P-6910 Indicator, the world’s first mechanical chronograph with a digital stopwatch display.

Now that the fine mechanical watch is back in vogue, the Eterna Watch Company is widely recognized as one of a small handful of companies that kept the flame alive. To this day, Eterna remains dedicated to advancing the art of mechanical watchmaking, continuing to manufacture exceptional watches of lasting value and mechanical perfection.

About Gevril Group

Gevril Group, directed by company founder and long-time creative force in the watch business Samuel Friedmann, is the exclusive US representative for select European watch brands, distributing and servicing luxury, fashion and sporty timepieces at a wide range of price points. Additionally, Group Gevril operates a full-service watch repair department staffed by master Swiss watchmakers. Contact Gevril Group by email or by calling 845-425-9882.